#FF00AA

[AirDrop is] not a variant on Bonjour: the two Macs do not need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi base station or larger Wi-Fi network. Rather, they only need to be within Wi-Fi range of one another. AirDrop uses a peer-to-peer ad hoc connection, though one that’s instant to set up and secure. A Mac using AirDrop doesn’t drop a Wi-Fi network connection if it has one; it can communicate to another Mac and maintain its network connection, too. This requires newer hardware.

Huh. That’s interesting, and somewhat unexpected (especially the second part). More importantly, it’s a good sign that iOS 5 should allow for syncing your devices over wifi, if Apple now has a technology that enables ad-hoc communication between devices without having to lose the internet connection over wifi on your computer in the process. (It doesn’t matter if the iOS device has to disconnect from the wifi access point, since the current incarnations are entirely inoperable during sync anyway.)